bedelman
Mar 30, 02, 8:02 pm
Check-in in BOS
Got to BOS 40 minutes before the 8:45AM flight to ORD was to leave. Seemed early enough to me, and it was, barely. But the First check-in staff person couldn't figure out how to process my VIPOW -- said the instructions on the back were "like Greek" to him, so he got another agent to help. Turned out he was trying to upgrade an award flight I had taken literally months ago -- no idea how or why he pulled that up on his computer when I gave him my passport plus EXP card! -- but the other agent straightened it out. Total time for check-in: Fourteen minutes.
Through security -- no one in front of us in the elite line to access the screeners, then a few "regular" pax in line for the leftmost X-ray machine (the one most obviously used by elite pax). Made it through without incident -- no secondary check of my carry-on suitcase, for once! -- and went in to the AAdmiral's Club / Flagship Lounge complex. The woman there (Maureen?) wanted to know where my VIPOW was; I insisted I had surrendered it at check-in, but she said my record wasn't documented properly. I described the agent who had checked me in; she called out to the check-in desk, got his confirmation, and had him read her the serial number of my VIPOW for entry into my record. Total time elapsed: Eight minutes.
So I got to the Flagship Lounge with just a few minutes left to enjoy it. Not that there's much to enjoy at breakfast time.
BOS-ORD
Got on just in time, with the door practically closing right behind me. But then our "alleyway" (just behind the plane, I gather) wasn't clear. After that, ground delays with a line of four or five planes in front of us. Felt like life before 9/11 -- maybe in a good way, but surely less fast than when air traffic was at lower capacity.
Food was adequate. Fine fruit -- half a strawberry, four pieces of cantaloupe, some other kind of melon. A bowl of cereal. And hot buttermilk biscuits (very good) plus bagels.
Arrived in ORD 25 minutes late to find our gate still occupied by another aircraft. The pilot said we'd be in a hold area for just a few minutes, but the delay was fully 45 minutes as the other aircraft needed some kind of maintenance followed, of course, by paperwork.
ORD connection
Arrived at the ORD gate fully an hour and ten minutes late, turning what should have been a leisurely visit to the Flagship Lounge into an unpleasant rush. I unfortunately absolutely had to send a pretty urgent email, so after checking on the chaos at gate K16 where boarding was to take place but clearly was not as yet (no updated info on the TV screen, of course), I went to the Flagship Lounge to do get a quick 'net connection. The FL staff reported that the NRT departure was delayed a bit due to some equipment problems, and they promised to let me know just before final boarding. So I managed to send some email before surveying the FL food options. Some OK-looking cake that wasn't suitable for noon-time eating. A decent selection of crackers, but cheese was packaged rather than fresh which seemed to me decidedly inappropriate for the FL. Some fruit options and some other choices that didn't catch my eye. In any case, there was no time for eating more, as I had to board the flight to NRT.
Note that the rear exit from the Flagship Lounge opens directly onto the K16 gate area -- causing some funny looks from the folks in the gate (who were of course surprised to see the spread of food, modern lighting, and comparatively luxurious seating in the FL, vis a vis their own uncomfortable surroundings in the still-packed gate area!).
ORD-NRT
Indeed, some chaos remained at K16, as the flight was oversold. My companion (who had skipped the FL) reported that they were offering $1200 plus overnight hotel per volunteer for a confirmed seat on the same flight the next day. All of a sudden, as my companion and I were waiting in line for boarding, we heard ourselves paged. I dashed over to the desk in hopes of an operational upgrade to F -- the wonderful double-upgrade -- but instead they were just confirming that we were in the gate area and about to board.
Got on and found MRTB excellent -- six rows of J, as expected. Our seats, a window and aisle in row 13, were squarely over the wing which reduced the view, but overhead space was ample and we were instantly very comfortable.
Orange juice offered promptly (no champagne offered, not that we would have chosen it), but no jacket service offered. Even as I write this, just before meal service, my jacket continues to hang on the seat in front of me. Go figure!
AA had finally gotten a couple final volunteers, but locating their luggage took quite some time, causing us to depart fully an hour late. Absolutely enfuriating that they'd oversell the flight so badly -- no doubt in some way relating to the cancellation of SEA-NRT, I think -- which is of course directly responsible for the delay. (And all the worse that they didn't somehow manage to get volunteers at check-in or earlier on, so that the baggage could be more efficiently located.) I was not impressed and not pleased.
FAs took meal orders from back to front as expected on this odd number flight. The FA on my side of the aisle took orders for two middle pax per row plus of course the two on this side of the aisle, and all four people behind me ordered the Japanese lunch, as did all four people in my row plus one in the row in front -- nine total, by my count. The poor FA then had to tell all the other pax that no more Japanese meals were available. As expected, quite a few pax (both Japanese and American) were unhappy to hear this, and there was heated Japanese-accented talk of "full fare" and "platinum" and so forth. My own sense is that nine Japanese meals is likely not enough for twenty-four J passengers on this side of the aisle (including all the middle pax), and certainly that was the case today. But a FA, when I subsequently asked her about this, said it was often enough and that running out varied from day to day. I said I would have thought the extra catering for FAs would have solved this problem just as it solved meal availability for most meals on most other routes, but she said FAs can't choose the Japanese meal -- it's just not one of their options -- so there's no extra catering of that meal in anticipation of leaving some for FAs. I said I'd write a letter to AA in-flight services flagging this problem -- not that they don't already know about it, of course, but still... -- and I will. (Any other related issues worth raising?)
The first round of movies began without warning or PA announcement, causing me to miss a few minutes at the start of my choice. Unfortunate, I thought, but maybe this is typical. After being fortunate enough to fly F (with on-demand video) rather than J on most of my prior recent AA trips, I genuinely didn't and don't know!
Meal service was fine. Since I had previously inquired re the details of the Japanese meal, I'll document that in a bit greater detail than I've seen elsewhere here: Meal began with three pieces of sushi, bite-size (square) rather than (to my American sensibility) the "two to three bite" standard of most sushi chefs. Very tasty, nicely presented, and served with a classy chopsticks holder. A brief lull, then a full-size tray of cold delights with a hot meal on one side and a covered bowl of soup and a bowl of sticky rice on the other. Cold items included various kinds of vegetables (mostly "weird" Japanese-style vegetables that I couldn't recognize but that tasted plenty good) as well as two cold dishes with chicken. The soup seemed to be soy-based rather than miso-based, with a nice strong flavor. The main dish was fish and shrimp with some peppers. All in all, very good.
Dessert was a choice of chocolate cake and a fruit plate. I asked for cake and said I'd have some fruit if there was any left after serving other pax. Unfortunately they subsequently ran out of fruit and had only cake left. So I should have done it the other way -- fruit now, cake later -- so as to in fact get both. And looking inside the cart would have tipped me off. Live and learn.
Thirsty, I had nearly emptied my 1/2 liter water bottle when a FA with one gallon bottle of water came down the aisle to refill it! I've never seen this before but was suitably impressed. It's surely more cost-effective -- by a bit! -- than bringing more of the bottles of water. And got lots of smiles from the other pax as she found a few other takers.
Snack attack was present in all its glory on at least today's flight (and was advertised on the menu to boot). One of the FAs didn't know if it had been cut, but another checked in a cart and found it. No one was quite sure whether it's being cut or is sure to stay.
Second meal service was from the front forwards, food delivered immediately after request placed. Choices were a pizza and mountain crab's legs with some sort of Japanese-style garnishes. Obviously all the Japanese people wanted the crab, so by the time the FAs got to me in the next-to-last row, they were well out of crab, having run out after, I think, the second or third row. A sticker on the side of the cart reflected that it included 8 Japanese meals and 12 Western meals -- a terrible mix for this load of pax. I asked the FA about it, she said "that's the way it goes sometimes" and that was that. I'm definitely going to write a letter, I resolved.
Arrival an hour and twenty minutes late, unremarkable passport control and customs (~10 minute and ~2 minute lines, respectively), and into the arrivals terminal.
NRT-ORD
Arrived at NRT Terminal 1 to find a long line for xray security to get into the AA check-in area. Unlike other airlines, there was no sign offering a separate or expedited entrance for premium or elite pax, so I waited the three minutes in the fast-moving line. Check-in was fine; I asked coyly about the load in Business and First and was told that First was overbooked and so there wouldn't be any operational upgrades. Weird, I thought, but go figure...
AAdmiral's Club was adequate. Soda machine dispensed an off-tasting Sprite, but the assortment of non-alcoholic drinks seemed fine to me otherwise. Cheese and crackers were available in pre-made but fresh (i.e. non-packaged) sandwiches with the yellow American cheese I never much care for. Some packaged nuts available (OK) as well as cookies (not sweet or chocolatey enough).
The flights to both Dallas and San Jose were delayed, causing quite a mess of excess pax in the Club. (The SJC flight was delayed for two hours for "equipment swap" -- seemingly a swap of the whole plane, odd as it sounded -- which seemed especially weird since I couldn't imagine there being an extra AA 777 in NRT with which to swap. Or maybe they gave my ORD flight the plane that should have been going to SJC, so more ORD pax would make their connections, in the process sacrificing the timeliness of the SJC flight?) I was tempted to go to the Cathay lounge, as suggested repeatedly in various threads in the AA forum as a quieter place in NRT. But if I did, I wouldn't hear the announcement when my own flight was delayed. Fortunately, it wasn't, incredibly enough.
Service on-board was fine. The Japanese meal sounded a little less desirable from the menu description, with multiple items being described as containing "wasabi mayonnaise" and "wasabi mustard" -- and indeed it was noticeably less tasty, I thought, than the meal on the way out. Of course in between I had eaten 8+ days of Japanese food, which might have raised my standards and expectations, so maybe I'm an unfair judge.
Dessert -- had cake, then I got a plate of fruit as they went by on the return. Not bad; almost F-like.
No movies to my liking, so I went to sleep after the service was complete. Propping my legs up with a pillow (to get them higher than the legrest would allow), sleeping was easy enough.
Breakfast was odd in that the cereal came with milk already poured over it -- something I've never seen before. I like my cereal without milk, so this was bad news for me, but the fruit and bread basket were good enough in a pinch.
In ORD
After arrival and customs, transferred terminals (from int'l arrivals to AA departures) and went to the Flagship Lounge. It was nearly empty upon arrival but filled with perhaps 8 groups of pax as I stayed there. Most groups included kids -- a couple with an infant, a family with two teenage daughters, and family with one teenage daughter, and on and on -- which was quite different from my usual FL experience. The catering staff promised that sushi would arrive by 4pm ("4:00 on Thursday Friday Saturday" said the catering woman in clear if somewhat broken English), but it didn't, and then I had to leave for my connection to BOS. Too bad. But the shrimp coctail, chocolate-dipped strawberries, fruit, and cheese & crackers (cut-your-own cheese, not packaged, a big improvement) were to my liking in any case.
No shower in the ORD FL, and I wasn't inclined to go to an AAdmiral's Club for a shower, so I did without.
Mobilestar wireless ethernet wouldn't work for me in the FL -- couldn't get a Connect light on my card; it was as if the base station had been unplugged. I thought AA was continuing to operate the Mobilestar network in its US clubs, but perhaps not. At least the AA IBM flatpanel was working as expected, and there were plentiful phones with free local and 800 access.
ORD-BOS
F on the Super 80 to BOS was a bit cramped compared to the wider 737-800 on the way to ORD on the outbound leg. Smaller overhead bins; my bag just barely fit nonetheless, but the grumpy passenger behind me was outraged that his just wouldn't, notwithstanding repeated claims that it fit on the way over and was no bigger now than then. (He was right, but obviously hadn't considered that this was a different kind of plane.)
Catering was surprisingly nice. Shrimp coctail plus a salad (with grated parmasean cheese and plentiful croutons) to start. Then baked manicotti, finally a very rich chocolate cake (all the better after the inevitably-not-rich-enough Japanese desserts).
All in all
All in all, a great trip. Not so much for the AA Business travel to and from Japan -- which felt somewhat mediocre to me after I've gotten so spoiled in perhaps a few too many trips in International First. But for Japan itself. With the yen where it is -- >130 yen/dollar -- it's a great time for a combination vacation & mileage run to Japan, motivated by combination of earning miles, seeing the interesting country, and eating the tasty & susprisingly affordable food.
Got to BOS 40 minutes before the 8:45AM flight to ORD was to leave. Seemed early enough to me, and it was, barely. But the First check-in staff person couldn't figure out how to process my VIPOW -- said the instructions on the back were "like Greek" to him, so he got another agent to help. Turned out he was trying to upgrade an award flight I had taken literally months ago -- no idea how or why he pulled that up on his computer when I gave him my passport plus EXP card! -- but the other agent straightened it out. Total time for check-in: Fourteen minutes.
Through security -- no one in front of us in the elite line to access the screeners, then a few "regular" pax in line for the leftmost X-ray machine (the one most obviously used by elite pax). Made it through without incident -- no secondary check of my carry-on suitcase, for once! -- and went in to the AAdmiral's Club / Flagship Lounge complex. The woman there (Maureen?) wanted to know where my VIPOW was; I insisted I had surrendered it at check-in, but she said my record wasn't documented properly. I described the agent who had checked me in; she called out to the check-in desk, got his confirmation, and had him read her the serial number of my VIPOW for entry into my record. Total time elapsed: Eight minutes.
So I got to the Flagship Lounge with just a few minutes left to enjoy it. Not that there's much to enjoy at breakfast time.
BOS-ORD
Got on just in time, with the door practically closing right behind me. But then our "alleyway" (just behind the plane, I gather) wasn't clear. After that, ground delays with a line of four or five planes in front of us. Felt like life before 9/11 -- maybe in a good way, but surely less fast than when air traffic was at lower capacity.
Food was adequate. Fine fruit -- half a strawberry, four pieces of cantaloupe, some other kind of melon. A bowl of cereal. And hot buttermilk biscuits (very good) plus bagels.
Arrived in ORD 25 minutes late to find our gate still occupied by another aircraft. The pilot said we'd be in a hold area for just a few minutes, but the delay was fully 45 minutes as the other aircraft needed some kind of maintenance followed, of course, by paperwork.
ORD connection
Arrived at the ORD gate fully an hour and ten minutes late, turning what should have been a leisurely visit to the Flagship Lounge into an unpleasant rush. I unfortunately absolutely had to send a pretty urgent email, so after checking on the chaos at gate K16 where boarding was to take place but clearly was not as yet (no updated info on the TV screen, of course), I went to the Flagship Lounge to do get a quick 'net connection. The FL staff reported that the NRT departure was delayed a bit due to some equipment problems, and they promised to let me know just before final boarding. So I managed to send some email before surveying the FL food options. Some OK-looking cake that wasn't suitable for noon-time eating. A decent selection of crackers, but cheese was packaged rather than fresh which seemed to me decidedly inappropriate for the FL. Some fruit options and some other choices that didn't catch my eye. In any case, there was no time for eating more, as I had to board the flight to NRT.
Note that the rear exit from the Flagship Lounge opens directly onto the K16 gate area -- causing some funny looks from the folks in the gate (who were of course surprised to see the spread of food, modern lighting, and comparatively luxurious seating in the FL, vis a vis their own uncomfortable surroundings in the still-packed gate area!).
ORD-NRT
Indeed, some chaos remained at K16, as the flight was oversold. My companion (who had skipped the FL) reported that they were offering $1200 plus overnight hotel per volunteer for a confirmed seat on the same flight the next day. All of a sudden, as my companion and I were waiting in line for boarding, we heard ourselves paged. I dashed over to the desk in hopes of an operational upgrade to F -- the wonderful double-upgrade -- but instead they were just confirming that we were in the gate area and about to board.
Got on and found MRTB excellent -- six rows of J, as expected. Our seats, a window and aisle in row 13, were squarely over the wing which reduced the view, but overhead space was ample and we were instantly very comfortable.
Orange juice offered promptly (no champagne offered, not that we would have chosen it), but no jacket service offered. Even as I write this, just before meal service, my jacket continues to hang on the seat in front of me. Go figure!
AA had finally gotten a couple final volunteers, but locating their luggage took quite some time, causing us to depart fully an hour late. Absolutely enfuriating that they'd oversell the flight so badly -- no doubt in some way relating to the cancellation of SEA-NRT, I think -- which is of course directly responsible for the delay. (And all the worse that they didn't somehow manage to get volunteers at check-in or earlier on, so that the baggage could be more efficiently located.) I was not impressed and not pleased.
FAs took meal orders from back to front as expected on this odd number flight. The FA on my side of the aisle took orders for two middle pax per row plus of course the two on this side of the aisle, and all four people behind me ordered the Japanese lunch, as did all four people in my row plus one in the row in front -- nine total, by my count. The poor FA then had to tell all the other pax that no more Japanese meals were available. As expected, quite a few pax (both Japanese and American) were unhappy to hear this, and there was heated Japanese-accented talk of "full fare" and "platinum" and so forth. My own sense is that nine Japanese meals is likely not enough for twenty-four J passengers on this side of the aisle (including all the middle pax), and certainly that was the case today. But a FA, when I subsequently asked her about this, said it was often enough and that running out varied from day to day. I said I would have thought the extra catering for FAs would have solved this problem just as it solved meal availability for most meals on most other routes, but she said FAs can't choose the Japanese meal -- it's just not one of their options -- so there's no extra catering of that meal in anticipation of leaving some for FAs. I said I'd write a letter to AA in-flight services flagging this problem -- not that they don't already know about it, of course, but still... -- and I will. (Any other related issues worth raising?)
The first round of movies began without warning or PA announcement, causing me to miss a few minutes at the start of my choice. Unfortunate, I thought, but maybe this is typical. After being fortunate enough to fly F (with on-demand video) rather than J on most of my prior recent AA trips, I genuinely didn't and don't know!
Meal service was fine. Since I had previously inquired re the details of the Japanese meal, I'll document that in a bit greater detail than I've seen elsewhere here: Meal began with three pieces of sushi, bite-size (square) rather than (to my American sensibility) the "two to three bite" standard of most sushi chefs. Very tasty, nicely presented, and served with a classy chopsticks holder. A brief lull, then a full-size tray of cold delights with a hot meal on one side and a covered bowl of soup and a bowl of sticky rice on the other. Cold items included various kinds of vegetables (mostly "weird" Japanese-style vegetables that I couldn't recognize but that tasted plenty good) as well as two cold dishes with chicken. The soup seemed to be soy-based rather than miso-based, with a nice strong flavor. The main dish was fish and shrimp with some peppers. All in all, very good.
Dessert was a choice of chocolate cake and a fruit plate. I asked for cake and said I'd have some fruit if there was any left after serving other pax. Unfortunately they subsequently ran out of fruit and had only cake left. So I should have done it the other way -- fruit now, cake later -- so as to in fact get both. And looking inside the cart would have tipped me off. Live and learn.
Thirsty, I had nearly emptied my 1/2 liter water bottle when a FA with one gallon bottle of water came down the aisle to refill it! I've never seen this before but was suitably impressed. It's surely more cost-effective -- by a bit! -- than bringing more of the bottles of water. And got lots of smiles from the other pax as she found a few other takers.
Snack attack was present in all its glory on at least today's flight (and was advertised on the menu to boot). One of the FAs didn't know if it had been cut, but another checked in a cart and found it. No one was quite sure whether it's being cut or is sure to stay.
Second meal service was from the front forwards, food delivered immediately after request placed. Choices were a pizza and mountain crab's legs with some sort of Japanese-style garnishes. Obviously all the Japanese people wanted the crab, so by the time the FAs got to me in the next-to-last row, they were well out of crab, having run out after, I think, the second or third row. A sticker on the side of the cart reflected that it included 8 Japanese meals and 12 Western meals -- a terrible mix for this load of pax. I asked the FA about it, she said "that's the way it goes sometimes" and that was that. I'm definitely going to write a letter, I resolved.
Arrival an hour and twenty minutes late, unremarkable passport control and customs (~10 minute and ~2 minute lines, respectively), and into the arrivals terminal.
NRT-ORD
Arrived at NRT Terminal 1 to find a long line for xray security to get into the AA check-in area. Unlike other airlines, there was no sign offering a separate or expedited entrance for premium or elite pax, so I waited the three minutes in the fast-moving line. Check-in was fine; I asked coyly about the load in Business and First and was told that First was overbooked and so there wouldn't be any operational upgrades. Weird, I thought, but go figure...
AAdmiral's Club was adequate. Soda machine dispensed an off-tasting Sprite, but the assortment of non-alcoholic drinks seemed fine to me otherwise. Cheese and crackers were available in pre-made but fresh (i.e. non-packaged) sandwiches with the yellow American cheese I never much care for. Some packaged nuts available (OK) as well as cookies (not sweet or chocolatey enough).
The flights to both Dallas and San Jose were delayed, causing quite a mess of excess pax in the Club. (The SJC flight was delayed for two hours for "equipment swap" -- seemingly a swap of the whole plane, odd as it sounded -- which seemed especially weird since I couldn't imagine there being an extra AA 777 in NRT with which to swap. Or maybe they gave my ORD flight the plane that should have been going to SJC, so more ORD pax would make their connections, in the process sacrificing the timeliness of the SJC flight?) I was tempted to go to the Cathay lounge, as suggested repeatedly in various threads in the AA forum as a quieter place in NRT. But if I did, I wouldn't hear the announcement when my own flight was delayed. Fortunately, it wasn't, incredibly enough.
Service on-board was fine. The Japanese meal sounded a little less desirable from the menu description, with multiple items being described as containing "wasabi mayonnaise" and "wasabi mustard" -- and indeed it was noticeably less tasty, I thought, than the meal on the way out. Of course in between I had eaten 8+ days of Japanese food, which might have raised my standards and expectations, so maybe I'm an unfair judge.
Dessert -- had cake, then I got a plate of fruit as they went by on the return. Not bad; almost F-like.
No movies to my liking, so I went to sleep after the service was complete. Propping my legs up with a pillow (to get them higher than the legrest would allow), sleeping was easy enough.
Breakfast was odd in that the cereal came with milk already poured over it -- something I've never seen before. I like my cereal without milk, so this was bad news for me, but the fruit and bread basket were good enough in a pinch.
In ORD
After arrival and customs, transferred terminals (from int'l arrivals to AA departures) and went to the Flagship Lounge. It was nearly empty upon arrival but filled with perhaps 8 groups of pax as I stayed there. Most groups included kids -- a couple with an infant, a family with two teenage daughters, and family with one teenage daughter, and on and on -- which was quite different from my usual FL experience. The catering staff promised that sushi would arrive by 4pm ("4:00 on Thursday Friday Saturday" said the catering woman in clear if somewhat broken English), but it didn't, and then I had to leave for my connection to BOS. Too bad. But the shrimp coctail, chocolate-dipped strawberries, fruit, and cheese & crackers (cut-your-own cheese, not packaged, a big improvement) were to my liking in any case.
No shower in the ORD FL, and I wasn't inclined to go to an AAdmiral's Club for a shower, so I did without.
Mobilestar wireless ethernet wouldn't work for me in the FL -- couldn't get a Connect light on my card; it was as if the base station had been unplugged. I thought AA was continuing to operate the Mobilestar network in its US clubs, but perhaps not. At least the AA IBM flatpanel was working as expected, and there were plentiful phones with free local and 800 access.
ORD-BOS
F on the Super 80 to BOS was a bit cramped compared to the wider 737-800 on the way to ORD on the outbound leg. Smaller overhead bins; my bag just barely fit nonetheless, but the grumpy passenger behind me was outraged that his just wouldn't, notwithstanding repeated claims that it fit on the way over and was no bigger now than then. (He was right, but obviously hadn't considered that this was a different kind of plane.)
Catering was surprisingly nice. Shrimp coctail plus a salad (with grated parmasean cheese and plentiful croutons) to start. Then baked manicotti, finally a very rich chocolate cake (all the better after the inevitably-not-rich-enough Japanese desserts).
All in all
All in all, a great trip. Not so much for the AA Business travel to and from Japan -- which felt somewhat mediocre to me after I've gotten so spoiled in perhaps a few too many trips in International First. But for Japan itself. With the yen where it is -- >130 yen/dollar -- it's a great time for a combination vacation & mileage run to Japan, motivated by combination of earning miles, seeing the interesting country, and eating the tasty & susprisingly affordable food.